We will meet the group at the airport in Lima at around 10 am. Once everyone is greeted, we will make the lengthy drive into the mountains with breaks a long the way. While stopping in the central town of Huaraz is typical of tours, we will bypass this area to stay in a more remote village for a true Peruvian experience. Upon arrival, its time to relax, explore town and have a welcome dinner at a local restaurant. On the second day, while acclimating to the altitude, we will drive to several viewpoints with incredible mountain vistas. Some of these massive peaks are 6700 meters high and stand nearly 4km higher than us! When you add in the afternoon clouds swirling atop these mountains, you truly get an unforgettable sight. For the evening we’ll settle back into the village for dinner, with the option for a post processing demonstration.

For this morning we’ll travel to a “secret garden” and marvel at a variety of beautiful flowers with a flowing creek all of which are encircled by 6000+ meter peaks. There are amazing photography opportunities here with literally dozens of compositional options giving everyone plenty of space to roam and capture stunning images. After golden hour there is still plenty to see & shoot. Sometimes the best light can even occur midday! For sunset, we’ll shoot the mountains to the South from a lower elevation, looking up a massive peaks once again. Here, afternoon/sunset light is best and - if conditions are right - we will stay beyond sunset to shoot the night sky. You’ll be surprised at how fast the sun sets and the sky turns black at only 9 degrees latitude!

On this day, we’ll be shooting a standalone mountain which towers above the surrounding peaks. This mountain is covered by snow all the way down to the valley, and we’ll be shooting it from a giant field of flowers. To access this location, we will drive up to 4500 meters and hike 1km up to 4600 meters. We’ll allow for a few hours here to capture the best of the light in this amazing location. Afterwards, we’ll relocate to another village to stay for the evening. After having lunch here, we’ll go to a sunset location and enjoy some tele zoom work to capture more giant mountains from a distance. The highest peaks create their own ‘micro climates’ that you won’t want to miss, sometimes appearing and disappearing in only a matter of minutes. The combination of this phenomena with the right light is even more dramatic than the Northern Lights!

On our 4th day, we have an early start for a 2.5km hike with 300 meters elevation gain to arrive at our sunrise spot. Going slow and steady, we’ll arrive to find a gentle river situated below a 6300 meter peak - a beautiful location with numerous flowers, trees and reflecting pools. This area is expansive and we’ll spend a good part of the day here with plenty of snacks on hand. During the evening, post processing sessions with be provided, as well as a masterclass describing how to find these spectacular locations using Google Earth.

Taking a break from hiking today, we’ll begin with telephoto photography of snow-capped mountains from around 4700 meters elevation. From here, we’ll watch for spectacular clouds forming above the fluted peaks. After our sunrise shoot, we’ll go back to the hotel, pack our belongings and begin our drive to the second part of our tour: the hike to Paradise Mountain. The drive will be 7-8 hours with breathtaking views a long the way. We’ll lodge at the nearest town just outside the park. There are no hotels inside the park, so we’ll enjoy this hint of luxury!

Today we’ll begin our trek to a very special location. We’ll leave early for a 1.5 hour drive to the beginning of the hike where we’ll be met with donkeys, donkey drivers, horses and even a chef. They will carry our extra gear, food and luggage to base-camp at the foot of Paradise Mountain. Here they will set our tents and arrange our meals so that we have as much freedom as possible to explore this amazing area! The hike to base-camp is 12km with 750 meters of elevation gain. The slope is gradual as we follow a river nearly to its glacial origin.  As we have most of the day, there is plenty of time for a slow and steady pace with lots of breaks. The beauty of this valley and increasing mountain views will help keep your energy up! Our first evening at camp will be used to shoot the surrounding mountains and to enjoy the achievement of reaching this place. Dinner will be served in our own kitchen tent.

Over these 3 days, we will shoot the amazing Paradise Mountain and its captivating surroundings. There are a variety of angles, including some from 500 meters above the valley. There are plenty of subjects and compositions here, some with very little elevation gain. This area affords some of the most stunning views in the world with great potential for interesting foregrounds and epic light. The kitchen tent will remain open, with our personal chef offering breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee, drinks and snacks at any time. There will also be two toilets nearby. During the afternoon, Andean condors sometimes fly above the valley. These giant birds boast a wingspan of 3.3 meters and with good timing and a fast shutter speed they can be captured in flight! Not only can it result in a great photo, it is also a spectacular sight.

On the morning of day 9 we will get ready for the hike back to town.
The horses, donkeys and porters will be ready to carry our stuff and
ourselves for those who requested a horse. We will go back to the same hotel we stayed in before - and were we left our non essential gear behind closed doors. On day 10 we will leave early in the morning to Lima Airport to ensure we will all make our flight back in time.